Japan quake: Snow piles misery on homeless

Snow and freezing temperatures added to the misery of Japanese earthquake survivors in makeshift camps today.

Blizzard: Rescue workers search the town of Minamisanriku (Picture: AP)

Almost 500,000 people are huddled in temporary shelters and many lack hot food, water and warm clothes amid blizzards and temperatures plunging to -5C (23F). Many evacuees who have seen their houses destroyed are sleeping on the floor in unheated school gyms without toilets.

‘It’s cold, so many people have fallen ill with diarrhoea and other symptoms,’ said Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor in the devastated town of Otsuchi, where more than half the population of 17,000 is still missing.

The area near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has been particularly hard hit and faces a humanitarian crisis.

Masao Hara, the mayor of Koriyama, about 48km (30 miles) west of the plant, said 9,000 evacuees were sheltering in the city.

He added: ‘What we urgently need is fuel, heavy and light oil, water and food. More than anything else, we need fuel, because we can’t do anything without it. We can’t stay warm or work the water pumps.

‘I really would like to appeal to the world – we need help.’

More than 200,000 people in a 19km (12-mile) radius of the power station have been evacuated.

Japanese broadcaster NHK advised people to wrap up in newspaper and cling film to stay warm and explained how to boil water using empty food cans and candles.

Aid workers said their main concern was for the elderly, who make up the majority of those in the shelters.

‘They are having a very tough time,’ said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation.

The official death toll is about 4,000 but thousands more are missing and the number of dead is expected to rise dramatically. About 850,000 homes in the north are still without electricity.